Trail guides, day hikes, backpacking routes, and national park adventures across the US.
0.6 · 200 gain
<p>Saddle Pass Trail is the shortest strenuous hike in Badlands National Park, climbing 200 feet in just 0.3 miles up a steep clay and rock face to reach the top of the badlands wall. The ascent requi...
19.0 · 3000 gain
<p>The Rancherias Loop is the premier multi-day backcountry route in Big Bend Ranch State Park, traversing nearly 19 miles of remote Chihuahuan Desert and volcanic mountain terrain in one of the most ...
0.5 · 20 gain
<p>The Laguna Point Seal Watch loop is one of the most rewarding short wildlife viewing routes on the Northern California coast, circling a rocky headland at MacKerricher State Park where harbor seals...
0.75 · 100 gain
<p>The Door Trail leads through a literal gap in the badlands wall — an opening in the eroded buttes that acts as a gateway into the interior of the badlands basin. A boardwalk carries visitors the fi...
1.5 · 200 gain
<p>The Hoodoos Trail explores a surreal volcanic landscape within Big Bend Ranch State Park, leading to an otherworldly collection of eroded tuff formations rising from the Chihuahuan Desert floor in ...
9.0 · 50 gain
<p>The Haul Road Trail follows an abandoned coastal logging railroad grade converted to a multi-use path, extending nine miles along the Mendocino coast through a spectacular sequence of rocky coves, ...
want to tell you about my first real hike, because it's instructive in the worst possible way. It was a Saturday morning in late spring. A friend had suggested we do a "short hike" in the mountains — maybe five miles, nothing crazy, bring some water. I wore khaki pants.
3.4 · 400 gain
<p>Tower Arch sits in the remote Klondike Bluffs section of Arches National Park, accessed via a dirt road in the park's northwestern corner that requires a high-clearance vehicle when wet. This dista...
1.4 ·
<p>Closed Canyon Trail ventures into one of the most dramatic slot canyons in Texas, a narrow passage carved by water through layered volcanic tuff in the remote western reaches of Big Bend Ranch Stat...
2.0 · 300 gain
<p>The Lava Bluffs Trail at Calaveras Big Trees State Park explores a geologically distinct section of the park where ancient lava flows have created dramatic columnar basalt cliffs above the North Fo...
1.0 · 80 gain
<p>The walk to the base of the Tower of Babel and Courthouse Towers in the southern section of Arches National Park provides intimate access to some of the park's most dramatic freestanding stone mono...
4.0 · 900 gain
<p>The Eagle Eye Shelter Trail leads to one of the most charming and historically significant rest stops in Jefferson County Open Space, a beautifully crafted stone shelter built in 1919 and still sta...
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